“…Giveaways and backing from government is nearly an everyday occurrence – at the local, state and federal level – and nary a word is spoken.”

“Governor Quinn, Mayor (Rahm) Emmanuel and other visionary Chicago-area leaders have paved the way for mass-market adoption of electric cars in their community,” said Scott Becker, senior vice president, Administration and Finance, Nissan Americas.

“If the people in Illionois like to commute to work with the ‘heat’ on then they might not want to buy the Leaf” A former NISSAN employee who worked with the LEAF battery technology

Consider, for example, Nissan North America, part of another international conglomerate that hardly needs backing by U.S. taxpayers. The Japan-based automaker received a $1.4 billion loan (that actually did close) under the ATVM program to retrofit a plant in Smyrna, Tenn., to build the all-electric Leaf and to also construct an advanced battery manufacturing facility.

The suggestion of mutual back-scratching between Nissan and government is much stronger than with Severstal, which has had no campaign donations to politicians and spent only $245,000 on lobbying in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Nissan employees, on the other hand, have donated thousands of dollars to candidates and the company has spent millions of dollars – including more than $11 million from 2007 to 2009 – on lobbying. The company has employed powerful influencers like the Breaux Lott Leadership Group to advocate for its interests, including for the stimulus legislation that fueled the ATVM program.